January 20, 1892.] 



Garden and Forest. 



29 



Professor Sargent has been assiduously engaged in collecting, 

 and now generously gives to the Arboretum, with specimens 

 of fruits and Howers, of nuts and cones, of woods and roots, 

 and hundreds of other things that are a deliglit to the lovers 

 of trees and Mowers. 



Apart from all there is to rejoice the eye and cultivate the 

 mind in this noble tree-garden, the Arboretum, the thought of 

 its permanence should ever Ije present with one tofuUy appre- 

 ciate how great and valuable and l)eautiful a gift it is to the 



which will then shade its pleasant paths, and be the wonder 

 and delight of other generations. The beauty which we find 

 charming and promising in its immaturity will then be stately 

 and solemn in its perfection of size and venerableness. Far 

 away will be the memory of those who planned this forest for 

 future ages, dim their personality, hut unforgotten their 

 names, for these the world " will not willingly letdie." In this 

 age, so full of personal struggle, of selfish greed, of individual 

 ambition, it is well to know that men live with small thought 

 of their own fame, who are planning wisely 

 for the future happiness of millions. 



LiUe the roots of the trees they plant, 

 their beneficent mission is hidden from the 

 sight of man, but the outgrowth of their 

 deep-laid plans shall rise in the siglit of all 

 the people as a blessing far-reaching and 

 magnificent as the great limbs of the Oaks 

 and Beeches, which shall be their stateliest 

 monument. 



Hinsham, Mass. M. C. Robbins. 



Fig. 7. — The Perforation of Flowers. 



I. Xylocopa and heads of male and female. 2. Eombus and head. 3. Dicentra spectabilis, showing 

 punctures. 4. Ribes aureum. 5. Ligustrum Ibota. 6 A^sculus glabra. 7. Lonicera involucrata. 

 8. Caragana arborescens. 9. Andromeda Japonica. 10. Buddleia Japonica. 11. Mertensia VLr- 

 ginica. 12. Rhododendron arborescens. 13. Corydalis bulbosa. 



country. Nowhere else has provision been made for such a 

 garden to e.xist for a thousand years under practically the 

 same conditions of growth and development, and as one 

 looks forward to the time when these fine young trees shall be 

 mossy with age and decrepit with the wear and tear of centu- 

 ries, there is great food for the imagination in the thought of 

 the greater Boston that will encompass this wooded region, 

 and of the differing race of men who will walk beneath the 

 overhanging branches of the mighty Oaks and Chestnuts 



The Perforation of Flowers. 



'T'HE subject of the relations and adapta- 

 ■*■ tions which e.vist between flowers and 

 insects does not appear to excite as much 

 popular attention as many other branches 

 of natural science which are no more inter- 

 esting. Sprengel, Darwin and Hermann 

 MuUer have been the chief authors in 

 giving us our present knowledge and inter- 

 est in the study ; Sir John Lubbock has 

 helped to popularize it, and Professor W. 

 Trelease and others have carried on the 

 work in this country. 



The perforation as well as the fertiliza- 

 tion of flowers has received attention, but 

 there is a wide field for further study for 

 those who have leisure to pursue it, as it 

 requires much time and patience, as well 

 as closeness and accurac)' of observation. 



The accompanying figures, from draw- 

 ings by Mr. C. E. Faxon, show a few char- 

 acteristic perforations and mutilations, and 

 also represent two of the principal kinds of 

 insect which make them. 



Any one interested in the subject will find 

 an excellent brief review of the work 

 already done, a fair bibliography, and a list 

 of perforated flowers, in Professor L. H. 

 Pammel's paper on the "Perforation of 

 Flowers " in the Trayisaciions of the St. 

 Louis Academy of Science, vol. v., pp. 246- 

 277. 



The general beauty of flowers is usually 

 not greatly marred by the perforations ex- 

 cept in a few cases, as when the spurs of 

 Columbines and corollas of Trumpet 

 Creepers are much torn, which frequently 

 happens. 



The great object of the perforations by in- 

 sects is the obtaining of the concealed nectar 

 in an easy way. Very naturally, flowers 

 which depend on insect agency for fertiliza- 

 tion rarely produce seed when punctured if 

 they are not also entered in the normal way. 

 Perforating is only practiced by a small num- 

 ber ot species of insects, and many, but not 

 all, of the perforators do so because their 

 tongues are too short to reach the nectar 

 by entering the flower. Some obtain nectar 

 from the same kind of flower, both in the 

 normal way and by perforating. 



The chief perforators of flowers, in this 

 part of the continent at least, appear to be 

 some kinds of humble-bees (Bombus) and 

 carpenter-bees (Xylocopa). These insects have developed 

 an unerring instinct as to the proper point to perforate the 

 corollas from the outside, in order to readily get at the nectar. 

 The holes made by the humble-bees and by the carpenter- 

 bees are usually quite different and easily distinguished. 



The humble-bees have short, stout, blunt jaws, ill adapted 

 for cutting, and the perforations made by them are apparently 

 always irregular in shape, and have jagged edges. It has been 

 stated that the humble-bees often bore through the tubes of 



